Bond of Brothers

Today we headed for the International District and the Wing Luke Museum, presenting the culture, art and history of Asian Pacific Americans. Now housed in a beautifully used space since 2008, it’s named after the first Asian American to be elected to the city council and there is a wonderful tour led by a darling knowledgable young gal from Viet Nam showing us the old hotel spaces, the first Asian market, and the family association rooms.
Of course we had to go have a wonderful dim sum lunch and then check out the big Asian market Uwajimaya where we bought a few things for dinner including 15 inch long green beans.
And before we left, of course we had to go have coffee or tea at the Panama Hotel, made famous by Jamie Ford in his wonderful book “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, the story of some of the Japanese families who were forced to leave their homes and businesses in WWll to go to an internment camp - this hotel stored many of their belongings and you can still see some that were not retrieved.
What important bits of history and and culture and connections here (some of which Americans are NOT proud of!) We saw so many interesting pictures from the 1900s (and some earlier) that were all black and white, this one of the 2 brothers needed to be the same. The Panama Hotel is still a working hotel but also a fine atmospheric tea and coffee shop. Jamie Ford has another book out “Songs of Willow Frost” which I’m looking forward to reading!
And I made a(boring) dinner!
A good visit. H’s brother and sister-in law will start back to Durango CO tomorrow, having had a pretty good “city fix” and more “bonding” with the whole family. (the weekly blip challenge for this week is bond :-))